VR!

[Me99]

I'm pretty tempted by those controllers but that price is about £100 too high for me. They do look brilliant with that BoneWorks game.

Annoying thing about VR is getting accurate info on how the screens look, people talked such bullshit about the last gen.

[Raid]

It's not as if you can rely on third party information either, as everybody's experience is different based on their eyes and IPD. The Rift S does not have moving lenses, and supports a smaller IPD range than the original Rift, and as such may not even work for many people. I know I'm at the wider end of the range on the original Rift, and it probably isn't going to be worth an upgrade for me. I don't have such information about the Index yet.

I need a headset I can use my glasses in, as although I can see without them it does add a little blurriness to the experience, and my primary VR experience requires me to read very small text from virtual screens and instruments.

[BoggyB]

£200 more than I was expecting for the full Index package. I'll still be buying it but not through preorder, since I'll need a couple of months surviving on tinned beans to cover it.

[Drarok]

Holy shit is that ever expensive. What is it that it brings to the table over the Rift S to command that price premium?!

[Raid]

Higher resolution displays, higher refresh rates, a larger field of view, significantly better audio, arguably better tracking, slightly more advanced controllers.

Rift S is pitching itself as the consumer-friendly, low end of PC VR, whereas Index is the high-end enthusiast model.

[Wrathbone]

I need a headset I can use my glasses in, as although I can see without them it does add a little blurriness to the experience, and my primary VR experience requires me to read very small text from virtual screens and instruments.

I recently got a Rift and that was a problem I hadn't considered. I can't see a damn thing in VR without my glasses and my current ones don't fit, but luckily my old glasses do fit and have a very similar prescription. It does mean I can't play for more than about an hour without developing a crippling headache, though.

[Lee]

Raid and Wrathbone I found out you can get custom lenses made for the VIVE or RIFT with your prescriptions details and and they take minimal fussing to put in. I got contacts now as it was slightly annoying with my glasses. Sliding the headset up for a quick glance at the table or something and they'd slightly dig into the forehead.

[Wrathbone]

Nice one, thanks for that!

[Raid]

I've been aware of the prescription lenses for VR headsets for a while, and I'm just not prepared to spend the money on a headset I'm expecting to be leaving behind within a year or two, especially when I can use it without. It's a really minor issue, and not really worth the expense to correct. I can happily use the headset for hours at a time without any noticeable eye strain. It's really just a concern for upgrading from the Rift; I forget which headset it is, but I know at least one of the upcoming models is designed to better accommodate glasses.

[Medicine Man]

I hear Valve has a 'flagship' title coming to all VR headsets...

https://uploadvr.com/valve-index-hands-on/

There are no software bundles with Index at launch and Valve only confirmed a “flagship” VR game from Valve due in 2019 for all VR headsets which connect to Steam. Valve representatives declined to say anything more about it.

[Raid]

I'm beginning to get quite irritated by my Oculus Rift setup. I've long had problems with the sensors rapidly disconnecting and reconnecting, screwing up the tracking for several seconds each time they do it, but they seem to be getting worse. It happens more often with two sensors connected, as if the PC is struggling for resources to operate them. For DCS I only have one of the sensors connected as it's sufficient for tracking just the headset, and it'll happen maybe once every two or three minutes. The Touch controllers require both sensors and the problem happens every thirty seconds or so. I've just tried Superhot VR for the first time and it was unplayable. The headset itself never switches off (and I believe it takes the power for the displays from the USB cable), so I'm assuming that it's just a problem for the sensors and isn't power related.

I suspect the problem lies in the USB chip on my motherboard, which my research suggests may not be supported. The Oculus software tells me that sensors are connected with USB 2.0 when I know the port is a 3.0 (and other devices run at 3.0 speeds). I've tried running with as few USB devices plugged in as I require to operate the PC, but it makes no difference. I've tried all manner of fiddling with settings (including USB power options; Windows should not be switching them off).

The solution seems to be to just ditch my motherboard's onboard USB ports and plug the sensors into a separate USB card, but I can't find consensus on which card I should buy. Has anyone else had to buy a USB card for their Rift?

[Drarok]

On my old PC I had to buy a USB card because I didn't have enough 3.0 ports, but on my current box I just shove everything into the motherboard and it's fine. I'm running a "GIGABYTE Z370 AORUS Ultra Gaming" mobo at the minute, apparently.

[Rusty]

Has anyone else had to buy a USB card for their Rift?

Having the vive I haven't had to do this but have read about people buying PCIe USB cards. Let's see if we can track down what they get.

Well, it seems pricey but apparently this has independent channels for each USB port:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Express-SuperS ... ZEA2S?th=1

[Raid]

Yup, and at eighty quid, I'd rather put the money into a replacement headset than four USB ports that I don't otherwise need. Honestly I'm quite bitter that this is needed in the first place, I've never before come across a USB device that needed a particular brand of USB controller before. I know this is early-adopter technology, but if the sensors can operate at USB 2.0 speeds (when the Rift first launched they required USB 3.0 connections), then surely the overheads aren't as demanding as they once were and this issue could have been fixed in a firmware update.

The Inatech one I've seen mentioned quite a bit was on offer yesterday, and I took that as a sign that I should finally buy it. It's a quarter of the price of that Startech one.

[Me99]

There's quite alot of internal card options, some of them are only £15
https://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-ha ... es/usb3-io